Oriental Fire Hell Dragons
by Tinsel
Summary: The story of a small planet near the L2 colony, and the mystery that surrounds it. Please read and review, my first. ^_^


Somewhere southwest of the L2 colony, a tiny planet floats around aimlessly. It is what most researchers call a 'wandering' planet, with no specified sun or solar system. Most of the time, all life on these planets never flourishes so, because at the most, the planets only stay in the orbit of the same sun for around twenty million years - hardly enough to start a primordial soup. These same planets are extinguished in a closet of darkness until another star pulls them in orbit, acting as sun until the planet 'wanders' off again, never staying in the same place.

This particular planet, however, has flourished life, despite the fact of only being in the same quadrant for about sixteen million years. In fact, it is a virtual breeding ground for life - clean water, pure air, leafy greens... nearly like a young Earth before humans evolved sufficiently to nearly destroy their planet and then move away from its recesses into the boundless realm of inky black space.

But nobody has even attempted to colonize this particular planet, despite the beauty and pureness it offers. This is mostly because of an old fabled tale that originated back on L2 a while ago and everybody believes it, with good reason.

Any pilot who has ever set off to land on the planet never returns.

There are several takes on this - some say that the planet is an eternal paradise, where the men and women who go are so intoxicated by the beauty and serenity of it that they never return.

Some have a much more sinister take on this, talk of devils and fire demons rise around the beautiful place and choke it in a atmosphere of smoggy fear. No person has ever attempted a landing on this planet in nearly three hundred years, and the layperson spends most of their time wishing that this nameless, pastless, futureless planet would wander away again and never come back. It's a thorn in the metaphorical side - this beautiful planet that could be used for strip-mining and life and human occupation hovers there unused, like a tantalizing soapbubble that hangs in the air, so perfect and beautiful, yet too high to touch, or pop.

The most famous legend about the nameless place is the one about the Oriental Fire Hell Dragons, so dubbed popular by the crowd. This story states that damned souls haunt the beautiful forests and wait for the smell of live human flesh to penetrate the place, before rearing and with flaming breath, roasting those noble pilots alive for dinner. The Oriental Fire Hell Dragons have taken their place in the stuff of myths, like the boogieman or the closet monster.

"Eat your dinner, or the Oriental Fire Hell Dragons will eat _you_!"

"Jason, come home _right now_, or I'll sic the Oriental Fire Hell Dragons on you!"

Barbaric, yes, but also effective.

And it is in the atmosphere of this planet that our story begins.

# # #

"My lock-on's fried!"

Quatre Raberba Winner shouted this into the communication system, lurching over to the side and jerking Sandrock out of the path of a mobile doll - the doll missed him but managed to peel away a layer of sheet metal from the side of his Gundam. Shaking his sweat-soaked hair out of his face, he tried again. "They're too fast - I can't keep a hold on them!"

"Talking about it isn't helping anyone," Duo Maxwell growled tersely back at him. Spinning around in a blaze of glinting sunlight he made Deathscythe spear a mobile doll on the large scythe like a toothpick through a grape. "Quatre, behind you!"

His only reply from the blonde-headed pilot was a grunt as Sandrock spun and blindly knocked at another doll with its fist. "I can't keep a hold - Duo, I'm pulling out."

"Like hell you are!" Duo pulled on his toggles, the end of the large scythe clipping the side of another mobile dolls. "Son of a bitching things," Duo muttered, pressing forward on the controls for all he was worth. The Gundam broke through the ring of mobile dolls that was starting to grow around Deathscythe. "Quatre, do you hear me! Quatre, I can't do this by myself."

There was silence.

Duo banged on the intercom. "Quatre! Not the intercom too! Winner, do you read?"  
There was jumbled muttering through the speaker, like Quatre was attempting to gargle mouthwash and speak to him at the same time.

"Bless it!" Quatre whirled Sandrock around, which was becoming harder and harder to do, the more damage the Gundam took. It was hot in the cockpit, and the rising adrenaline and fear weren't helping much. He blinked sweat out of his eyes and speared another mobile doll. "Where are all of these things _coming_ from?" When there was no jibe from Duo, Quatre turned towards the intercom and narrowly missed getting rammed from behind. "Duo?"

There was no response. Out of the corner of his eye, Quatre saw Deathscythe still, shudder, drop a little bit in the thin air of the atmosphere, and regain a tiny bit of altitude. Duo was running out of power, and Quatre could tell by all of his whistling and screaming danger dials that he was in the same position.

"Duo, behind you!" Never mind the fact that Duo couldn't hear him through the fried circuitry. "_Duo_!"

Duo, who was trying to divert power from his backup systems into his artillery, didn't hear or see the three mobile dolls rushing towards him.

Quatre _screamed _for all he was worth into the intercom.

The three dolls plowed through the back of Deathscythe, crunching the back of the Gundam in like paper. The cockpit became a heck of a lot smaller as Duo was both flung forward from the blow and restrained by the belts that were _supposed_ to keep him safe but were probably doing more harm than good at the moment.

"Ahh," he moaned, unable to force a scream through the rapidly rising waves of sleepiness and pain that were slicing through his world.

And all went black.

Quatre dived through the atmosphere after Duo, and was jolted back rudely as the warning system took its toll and jerked the Gundam up involuntarily. A quick look at the meters told him that likely, if he went down onto the nameless planet, he wouldn't have the energy to make a call out, let alone launch back off again.

Pulling up on the controls, Quatre slapped against the turbo and jetted through the wall of mobile dolls. He needed to get back to base for backup, and damn the mission. He could worry about Duo when he got there.

# # #

The Deathscythe Gundam was thrown to the surface of the planet with such force that it actually bounced off of the hard, supple earth for a few meters before grinding to a halt, uprooting some trees in the process.

Immediately upon landing, the three deactivated mobile dolls exploded into a million metal fragments, lighting the sky like silvery butterflies among a sunburst. 

The legs of Deathscythe started to explode as well - the arms went next. The hatch to the cockpit was blown off, as the inside popped several tiny explosions.

Unconscious and bloodied, the body of Duo Maxwell slid out of the Gundam and hit the ground, before the head of Deathscythe mysteriously exploded as well as the body. Metal rained down.

A hand snaked out, grabbing the boy by his long braid and dragging him unceremoniously through the shreds of metal.

Duo groaned slightly, wavering into consciousness for a few bleak seconds before slipping out again. The hand dropped his braid, and a figure crouched, pressing fingers against his pulse, feeling the weak flutter.

"Still alive? That's a first." The Oriental Fire Hell Dragon grabbed the braid again and resumed dragging.

# # #

Trowa Barton had had a rather uneventful couple of weeks and felt himself the better for it. Though he felt strangely empty, not having any battles to leap off to, it was nice to have a few days reprieve.

The safe house was situated on the beach, rented from an old crone who only truly needed three rooms for herself, and she was all too happy to let Trowa, Quatre and Duo occupy the rest of it, rent provided. Trowa was relaxing himself on the sands when Quatre came thundering up. Trowa was on his feet immediately.

"What's wrong?"

Quatre started to speak, but choked on his words. Trowa thumped him on the back a few times before Quatre finally got the words out.

"I think Duo's..." he choked, "...dead."

Trowa dropped his hand from Quatre's back and stared at the smaller, trembling blonde boy before him. "I see." His voice was dead and emotionless, as Quatre sniffed loudly. "What happened?"

# # #

A/N: I know it's short, gomen! ::grins:: But this is just the beginning, and the rest should fall soon into place. Please be nice if I've messed up the canon a bit - I haven't seen that many television episodes, being mainly a fan of the manga. Please review and tell a poor 'ol newbie what you think. ::bows::

~Tinsel


End file.
